When green tea isn't tea at all

After trying numerous brands, Yogi Tea brand "Simply Green Tea" has been my green tea of choice for several now. Since no local stores sell it, I have to buy it online. A couple weeks ago I placed my semi-annual order from a different online store than the one I normally buy from, and in a moment of gross negligence on my part, I bought the wrong tea.

What I wanted to buy:



What I mistakenly bought:



I didn't notice my mistake until after the tea arrived, and noticed the different packaging and the list of ingredients having, instead of just 1 ingredient, "Organic Green Tea Leaf," a blend of 10 different things.

Of course, only tea made from Camellia sinensis leaves is actually tea, and different preparations of Camellia sinensis leaves result in the different basic teas, such as white (least processing), green (medium processing), and black (most processing). Any "teas" made from other plants, commonly called herbal teas, aren't teas at all. While no detailed content proportion details are listed in the "Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant" ingredient list, from the listed caffeine content amounts of the two teas, 58 mg per bag in Simply Green Tea, and 21 mg of caffeine per bag in Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant, I would guess that only about 1/3 of Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant is actually green tea, and the rest is the non-tea herbs. Considering this, it would be a lot more accurate if they changed the name to "Super Anti-Oxidant Green Tea Blend" or something which emphasizes that it's a blend, and de-emphasizes the green tea part.

As I've written before, I hate letting things I buy go to waste, and sending the 3 little boxes I bought back was impractical, so I decided to drink it if at all possible. After all, how bad could it be?

Pretty dang bad. Not as bad as Choice brand Bancha Toasted Green Tea, which is the worst tea I've ever tried, but still pretty bad.


Avoid at all costs.

The tea has an overwhelming lemon flavor, presumably from the lemongrass. The tea would still be drinkable if it was a good lemon flavor, but it's not. I don't know how to describe it other than it's very bad.